Evening capital., 1887-05-28
A NAN OF MAGIC.
INFORMATION FOR THOSE WISHING
TO LEARN SLElGHT OF HAND.

A Reporters Chat with Modern Magi-
ciau-outat Needed by Amateur
conjurer--Decsls of DiabIcrie--several
New Tricks.
Militiaman John A. Schultz, the genial
conjurer of The Eighth regiment, had just
produced the pleasing Illusion that the re-
porter's hat was a savings bank by appar-
emily abstlacting from the lining several
crisp bank notes, half n dozen 50 gold
pieces, and quantity of silver dimes and
quarters, when the reporter seized the OPP
portnnity and fired questions straight at
him without any delay whatever.
NWen, said Militiaman Schultz, with
a smile, "as magicians are good people to
have around, and as the moro good people
there are around in the world the better
it will become, don't mind giving you
the secret that will increase our number.
The first tip is to go straight to some good
magician and take lessons in the art direct
from him. Books of instructions are USE
full only after the first principles of the
art are mastered.
oWhen you can palm and pass things
so that you can fool all the smart small
boy and all the smarter grown up folks in
your house and in the family next door,
you're ready to so ahead in your career
as a professional deceiver of your fellow
man The next step in that career is to
get magical apparatus That's the way
globes of gold fishes and dishes of blazing
oil and other startling things are pro-
duced from empty pocket handkerchiefs.
1t was by mechanical devices that Robert
Heller was able to take out of u mans hat
a cart load OF fruit jars, piles of tea
caddies, innumerable lighted Chinese
lanterns, about ton of rubber balls and
wooden blocks, wardrobe Of clothes, a
pyramid OF dishes, and finally the bright
little girl who used to run down laughing
to d seat among the spectators. When it
comes to the apparatus you can 60 it
economically, or you can revel in the
luxuriant expenditure of prolific income.
Magical outfits range in cost all the way
from 800 up into the thousands. A good
amateur, unless he wants to confine him
self exclusively to card tricks, can't pos
sibly get along in a parlor entertainment
without a center table These range in
cost from about $25 to $500. according to
finish and the number of traps and things
intended to produce the startling effects
that demonstrate to your smart spectator
that he isn't as smart as he thinks he is.
OTHER NEEDED ARTICLES.
"After you get your table the rest Of
your outlay is for mechanical tricks, the
first thing, OF course, to procure being
your conjurer's wand and q trick tabe
pistol into which you can load things
that you have smashed to flinders and
want to reproduce whole. There are sew
eral kinds of wands. One sort will float
in the air, another you can make disap-
pear down your throat, and another will
,11lI oi-
for you. Then you will want glass boxes
that look empty until you want them to
be full of curious things; card cases for
making cards disappear, and to cut up
other queer antics with; the inexhaustible
bottle, time honored chestnut of trick,
but perennially interesting to the chill
dren-magic bird cages, money chests,
and lots of other paraphernalia. In all
there are over 200 pieces of apparatus for
standard tricks, from the simple tiny rub
ber bottle that bobs up persistently until
the conjurer tells it TO lie down, to the ap-
paratus that viii enable you to safely cut
off the head of your best friend among
the spectators.
Militiaman Schultz stopped for breath
when he had piled all this mystic lore
upon the reporters head, and gave the
scribe chance to talk on his own account
/ Tile lEpOAINN bdidY anu
what did you say it would cost to learn it
alls''
II didn't say yet, y Tetorted the militia
man, who can do over 300 strange, be-
wildering and incomprehensible deeds Of
diablerie-s'I didn't say yet, but I'm
| going to tell you now. You or anybody
else can learn to become a magician OF
varying excellence by paying from $25 to
| $500 to any one of the pupils whom Herr
man or Heller has kindly taught For
| $25 you can learn select few good tricks,
but for $500 probably, or 5000 at the out
side, you can get training that viii enable
you to do everything that anybody who
doesn't want the earth would care TO per-
form.
'sThe conjurer must be good talker
and q funny one at that. By saying
funny things and being perfectly cool at
| all times he can travel smoothly along
with every trick. It is necessary in q
great many good tricks to talk away at
the spectators to give them the impression
that you are explaining what you are
going to do, when in reality yOu only
i want to mislead. them. The man who
talks well and entertainingly can accom-
piish his purpose readily. Who ever saw
Heller, for instance, was delighted as
much BY his bright talk almost as by the
tricks he did. If a trick is successfully
performed the wise c0njurer wiA not re-
peat it again that night. The wise con
iurer will also keep his spectators come
distance from his conjuring tables, and
above all. il hs blundeTs he viii neyci